Pennsylvania, like
many states, is saddled with wooden-headed legislators who make life
miserable for faculty at public colleges and universities by
periodically complaining about the work ethic of the professoriate.
Somehow, these guys have gotten the idea that the only hours that a
professor is working are the hours where he is teaching, and the rest
is just goofing off. If nothing else, you wish these particular
know-nothings could be forced to teach a course themselves, and
they'd find how much labor goes into preparation for class (leaving
aside all the other administrative and intellectual labor involved in
a faculty position). But then, we're not often given to explaining
ourselves, either. If we want the public to tell its representative
what dummies they are, it might behoove us to give folks a better
picture of our daily work routines.

I'm teaching History
60 and History 88 for the second time, and I thought I'd put up the
syllabi with this little design note so I could highlight some of the
behind-the-scenes thinking and work that goes into the redesign of a
class.

With History 60,
in
the syllabus for the first iteration of this
class, I
tried to cover more topics: scholarly representations of Africa
(especially anthropological ones), exhibitionary culture, museum
representations, mass media images of Africa, and so on. And there
were more texts in each section.

So why change? Well,
for one, I've come to feel that many Swarthmore professors habitually
overcrowd their syllabi with readings. I'm trying to cut down and ask
students to privilege quality of reading over quantity. More
specifically, however, I felt that because the class was covering,
rapid-fire, a great many issues, we weren't necessarily focusing on
the central questions that the course was meant to raise.

There are also
practical considerations involved. In between 1994 and 1999, many
excellent books have gone out of print: I would gladly have used Eddy
Harris' Native Stranger once again, for example.

In redesigning the
course, I felt strongly that I wanted my students to use the class as
a window into public debates about the "politics of culture", the
kind that erupt with great frequency but little subtlety and even
less historical grounding in American society. Though obviously, I'd
like students to learn something specifically about how Africa has
been envisioned and portrayed, I'm now more focused on the general
application of what we do in the class to a broader class of issues.
Africa is simply our focus, an illustrative example.

As a result, as I
pared down material, I also resolved to add a new kind of assignment
to the last portion of the class. Rather than write traditional
research papers, the students will be researching and organizing
position papers that will support their participation in a series of
debates about contemporary culture, ranging from whether a character
in "The Phantom Menace" is really an "African chief", as some critics
have alleged, to whether Afrocentric children's books problematically
distort African realities.

For History 88, the
old
syllabus is
pretty similar to the new one. Save for the elimination of
out-of-print texts and the addition of some newly published
materials, I've done relatively little to change the class except to
pare down the reading load slightly and reorganize a few sections. Of
all the classes I've taught so far at Swarthmore, this one was one of
the most satisfactory experiences the first time around, and called
upon me to do the least revision as a result. Of course, I read a
good deal of new material as I considered what additions and
subtractions I might make: even a class in which little revision is
evident in the syllabus nevertheless demands a lot of preparatory
work beforehand.

Kwame Anthony Appiah, In My Father's House: Africa in the
Philosophy of Culture

H. Rider Haggard, King Solomon's Mines

Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan of the Apes

Optional: Theodore Roosevelt, African Game Trails

Readings marked with an asterix are on reserve.

In this class, we will study the history of representation,
focusing on representations of Africa. Central questions include: how
are images and ideas reproduced over time? Can images and
representations be used to dominate or repress? How, if so? How do
the meanings of images change over time? Can an image which is
originally used in a repressive fashion or context lose that
authority over time?

There will be two short discussion papers in the first half of the
semester, but the major project on which a substantial portion of the
grade will be based will be the debates which are scheduled for the
last quarter of the semester. Students will be expected to do
substantial preparation for this assignment, including original
research. They will also be expected to prepare a substantial
position paper which will be turned in and graded and to give oral
presentations in class, which will include a rebuttal to the
arguments presented by the opposing group and answering questions and
objections from the floor.

Friday Sept. 3

Introduction

What is "representation"?

Bringing history to bear on "the politics of representation"

The debatable gap between representation and reality

I. The Reproduction of Images, The Representation of
Empire:

A Theoretical Debate

Monday Sept. 6

Edward Said, Culture and Imperialism, Chapter One

Wednesday Sept. 8

Said, Chapter Two Section VI; Chapter Three Sections I-II

Friday Sept. 10

Said, Chapter Four Section I

Monday Sept. 13

*Timothy Mitchell, "Orientalism and the Exhibitionary Culture", in
Dirks, ed., Colonialism and Culture

Wednesday Sept 15

Nicholas Thomas, Colonialism's Culture, Chapter One

Friday Sept. 17

Nicholas Thomas, Colonialism's Culture, Chapter Two

Monday Sept. 20

Nicholas Thomas, Colonialism's Culture, Chapter Six

Wednesday Sept. 22

*Susan Blackmore, The Meme Machine, Foreward, Chapter
One

Friday Sept. 24

*Susan Blackmore, The Meme Machine, Chapter Two and Chapter
Four

Monday Sept. 27

*Douglas Rushkoff, Media Virus! , Chapter Nine

First paper due

II. The Colonial Representation of Africa

Wednesday Sept. 29

*Philip Curtin, The Image of Africa, Chapter Two, Three and
Thirteen (skim)

There will be four assignments due during the semester, with the
final paper being the most important:

2-3 page discussion paper

A consumption diary and commentary on diaries, 2-3 pp.

Historical analysis of an advertisement, 2-3 pp.

Biography of a commodity, 10-12 pp

Though this is a large class, I still expect everyone to engage in
regular discussion. Attendance and participation are a vitally
important part of your final grade. You cannot do well in this
course if you miss class repeatedly.

Thursday September 2

Introduction

CONSUMPTION AND SOCIETY: THREE HISTORICAL SNAPSHOTS

I. Early Modern Europe: Transitions Reconsidered

Tues. Sept. 7

Lisa Jardine, Worldly Goods , Chapters One and Two

Thursday Sept. 9

Lisa Jardine, Worldly Goods , Chapter Six and Eight

Tuesday Sept. 14

*Jan de Vries, "Between Purchasing Power and the World of
Goods"

*Joyce Appleby, "Consumption in Early Modern Social Thought"

*Lorna Weatherill, "The Meaning of Consumer Behavior"

*TH Breen, "The Meaning of Things: Interpreting the Consumer
Economy of the Eighteenth Century"

You will be assigned ONE of these four essays to read. You will be
responsible for explaining its basic argument and methodology to
other students in small groups.

II. Consumption and the Making of Modern America

Thursday Sept. 16

William Leach, Land of Desire, Introduction, Chapters One through
Four